Swing that bird

I really like the groove of this version of Birdland. It's a totally different feel than the studio version on Heavy Weather.



Jaco's harmonics are just the shit, man.

Michael Barone Remembers Something

Mike B takes apart the Democrats newly adopted xenophobia and shows what a stupid strategy it is. Excerpt:

I seem to remember that it was candidate Barack Obama (not John McCain or Hillary Clinton) who gave a big election year speech in the Tiergarten in Berlin. It was Obama cheerleaders who told us that foreigners would love us once again if we sent George W. Bush back to Texas and installed their multicultural champion in the White House.

Back in 2008, we were supposed to vote for the candidate foreigners loved. Now, in 2010, we are supposed to vote against the party foreigners support.

He ends with the suggestion that the Democrats "D" initial "stands for demagoguery and desperation." When you're out of bullets, throw the gun. I guess.

She knew what she was doing...

...and she knew she'd get away with it. Excerpt:

FIRST LADY CAMPAIGNS INSIDE POLLING PLACE
Thu Oct 14 2010 16:19:25 ET

First lady Michelle Obama appears to have violated Illinois law -- when she engaged in political discussion at a polling place!

The drama began after Mrs. Obama stopped off at the Martin Luther King Center on the south side of Chicago to cast an early vote.

After finishing at the machine, Obama went back to the desk and handed in her voting key.

She let voters including electrician Dennis Campbell, 56, take some photos.

"She was telling me how important it was to vote to keep her husband's agenda going," Campbell said.

According to a pool reporter from the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES at the scene, the conversation took place INSIDE the voting center, not far from the booths.

Illinois state law -- Sec. 17-29 (a) -- states: "No judge of election, pollwatcher, or other person shall, at any primary or election, do any electioneering or soliciting of votes or engage in any political discussion within any polling place [or] within 100 feet of any polling place."

This is the part that really burns me:

A top Ilinois State Board of Elections official tells the DRUDGE REPORT that Mrs. Obama -- a Harvard-educated lawyer -- may have simply been ignorant of the law and thus violated it unintentionally.

"You kind of have to drop the standard for the first lady, right?" the official explained late Thursday. "I mean, she's pretty well liked and probably doesn't know what she's doing."

No, no, no. You "drop the standard" for people like janitors and store clerks if you do for anyone. Tell me: are we supposed to "drop the standard" for her because she's black? I refuse. She knew she wasn't supposed to do this, but she's an Obama, and no one is going to stop her for fear of repercussions.

Jonah Goldberg on Obama's Arrogance

Mr. G points out that even the libs have noticed, and that's good because now we can point out the bulge in the President's ego without being called racists. Here's a good summarizing paragraph:

There's an irony to occupying the Oval Office. When presidents think they're bigger than the job they hold, they shrink in office. When they think they're smaller than the honor that has temporarily been bestowed upon them, they grow into it. Obama has done nothing but shrink.

Get your hands off it

Whoa.

What bothers the elite so much about the Tea Party is that it is full of people who believe in the greatness of the nation and, from outside eyes, appear to be unapologetically nationalistic, a sin they had long since denounced. They are embarrassed of their kin. They view American nationalism as a sort of mental retardation, because the Euro-bigots have convinced them of it. Had they the backbone and clarity to argue the merits of Americanism, they would not have severed their manly parts in an effort to fit in.

Where these Americans view themselves as more enlightened than the middle-class working Joe, they invite into the void of estranged nationalism a sort of self-annihilation, a desire to squash Americanism into quasi-European world membership. They view patriotism as a disease and worldliness as a badge. They, who have been across the oceans and mixed with the peoples of other nations, return to America with a desire to remake themselves by remaking the nation. What's worse, they generally have the money and power to make the attempt.

Damn straight.

Turning ObamaCare into a Referendum for 2012

William McGurn outlines the way the GOP might do just that.

First, they would help define the law's problems for the American people.

Second, by defining the problems, Republicans would be in a better position to define and sell their more market-friendly fixes.

Third, by doing the first two, Republicans might get enough votes here and there to kick out key rungs of ObamaCare.

Even if Republicans could not get the president to sign anything into law, by forcing votes and vetoes Republicans would drive home an important point: If the American people really want repeal, they will need to vote for a Republican president in 2012.

The idea is that the GOP would focus on the provisions of the ObamaCare monstrosity itself and by showing the American public the damage it will do to medical costs, insurance companies and small businesses. But they will still need a Republican President to reverse it, so this would all be part of a longer term 2012 strategy.

I just hope that Boehner and his boys can pull it off, and then keep moving toward the goal of emasculating the poisonous law. It would be interesting if the postdating of ObamaCare to 2014 works to weaken it. It would showcase the misunderstanding of market dynamics that leftists and Keynesians possess.

One for the "Bwa-ha-ha" file

This is funny.

Blanche Lincoln needs to reach out to seniors so badly that she even dared to interrupt a Bingo game.

“Nobody told me we’d be honored with Ms. Lincoln’s presence,” the announcer said somewhat sarcastically at a senior center where some 25 people had gathered on a Thursday morning. “We’ll hold a little while, I guess.”

"Somewhat sarcastically." Love it. Check out the picture, it's hilarious. Not a happy camper.